5 Game Of Thrones Characters You’ll Like Much Better On A Rewatch (And 1 You’ll Like Less)

5. Selyse Baratheon

The makeup department always does a wonderful job, but turning English rose Tara Fitzgerald into a sour-faced trout might just be their masterpiece. Fitzgerald herself deserves praise too, crafting a portrayal that is startlingly unpleasant yet unmistakably real.

Her marriage, to put it mildly, must not have been fun. You get the impression both she herself and her husband Stannis would struggle to even imitate laughter, let alone actually find humour in anything. While Stannis never hits her and is probably the best husband of the Baratheon brothers, her relationship is hugely abusive. Stannis withholds what meagre affection he’s able to give and cheats on her with another woman. She can’t even object to this, as she’s been brainwashed into believing that woman is a conduit for the gods.

But then there’s her treatment of Shireen. Undoubtedly deplorable, the sheer shock of Shireen’s brutal death by flames often sees Selyse’s epiphany go unnoticed. She mistreats her daughter throughout her life, being cold and indifferent. Then burns her alive. Again, obviously terrible. But unlike Stannis (or anyone there) she tries to intervene in the burning, hanging herself out of guilt the next day. That’s at least break-even for Westerosi mothers.